Currently, most vinyl, rubber and other sheet flooring products are installed to a subfloor with wet adhesives. The wet adhesives are applied to the subfloor as by use of a notched trowel. The applied adhesives are allowed to cure for a prescribed amount of time, after which the flooring material typically provided as a large roll is laid and then rolled with a weighted roller. This method can be time consuming, messy and with high moisture or high pH concrete subfloors, lead to adhesive failure. In addition, the adhesives typically have volatile organic compounds. Thus, especially when applied in a hospital setting, the area must typically be evacuated for several days and measures taken to avoid exposure of adjacent areas to the volatiles.
In addition, especially in the hospital setting in which the floor is exposed to regular movement of a heavy bed on rollers, conventional wet adhesive applied floorings tend to disadvantageously creep, buckle, and otherwise deform after relatively short periods of time. In addition, the flooring industry has been having problems with regular processed glue adhesive in high moisture areas. Various mitigation methods have been attempted, but such methods are typically of high cost and generally unsatisfactory results.
Accordingly, improvement is desired in the field of sheet flooring, and in the installation of the same, especially in hospital settings and in high moisture areas, such as coastal areas and areas having relatively high humidity levels.
The present disclosure advantageously enables the provision of rolled flooring having a sheet flooring material married to a double-sided sheet adhesive in such a manner that the resulting flooring material is substantially free of bubbles and wrinkles that would show through when the flooring material is installed on the subfloor. The disclosure also provides methods and apparatus for manufacture of the flooring, and methods for installation of the flooring.